Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela's release from prison, February 11, 1990 Arrested in August 1962, Mandela walked out of the gates of Victor Verster Prison more than 27 years later. His release signaled that apartheid would end through negotiation rather than all-out war, and it opened four tense years of talks, a Nobel Peace Prize shared with President F.W. de Klerk in 1993, and the election that made Mandela president. Few single moments of the decade carried as much hope.